Women and Student Loans in the Time of COVID - The Debt Problem - Why Student Debt Matters—Especially Right Now

Oct 15, 2026

Student loan debt in the United States has grown dramatically, now totaling $1.54 trillion, with women carrying nearly two-thirds of the outstanding balance. The report highlights how gender and race/ethnicity intersect with borrowing burdens: Black women and first-generation college students often finish with more debt, and borrowers at for-profit colleges owe substantially more. It also explains how COVID-19 worsens repayment challenges through unemployment, reduced income, benefit gaps, and fewer gig opportunities, affecting housing, marriage, and childbirth decisions while delaying longer-term economic stability.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

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The Debt Problem

Mean total borrowed by gender and race/ethnicity

Why Student Debt Matters—Especially Right Now

What’s Being Done

CARES Act relief measures

| Deeper In Debt
Women and Student Loansin the Time of COVID
The Debt Problem
Americans today carry $1.54 trillion in student loan debt. That number has more thandoubled over the last decade—increasing at nearly six times the rate of inflation.1Women are particularly burdened, holding nearly two-thirds of all outstandingloans—around $929 billion.2
Mean Total Borrowed byGender and Race/Ethnicity ¢ Women
¢ Men Mean Total Borrowed by Women, by Institution Type $ 45,000 $ 40,000 $ 35,000 $ 30,000 $ 25,000 $31,346 $29,862 $37,558 $35,665 $27,029 $27,452 $25,252 $25,507
$ 20,000 $29,611 $32,086 $42,778 $ 15,000 $ 10,000 $ 5,000 White Black Hispanic orLatinx Asian Public 4-year Private non-profit4-year
For-profit 4-year

Note: Analysis excludes those who borrowed no money to finance their educations
Source: AAUW analysis of U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, B&B:17 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study | | | | --- | --- | --- | | While millions of women students have loan debt, there are distinct patterns of those who arehardest hit. Among borrowers: | | | | Black women finish theirundergraduate education withmore debt.3 | First-generation college studentsface more debt by the time theygraduate. Women whose parentsheld a highschool diplomaborrowed, on average, $4,145.80more than women whose parentsheld a bachelor’s degree.4 | Women who attended for-profitcolleges owe far more moneythan those who attended publicor private non-profit schools.5 | | | | | | Why Student Debt Matters—Especially Right Now | | | | --- | --- | --- | | E ven before coronavirusupended the global economy,the gender wage gap madeit harder for women to repay theirstudent loans. More women thanmen reported difficulty makingpayments during the first yearafter graduation (23.2% vs 21%,respectively) .6
The global economic shutdownwill only exacerbate the student debtproblem. Record-high unemployment,the loss of supplementary incomeand inadequate benefits will makeit harder for recent graduates—andfor women in particular—to pay backtheir student loans.
Recent graduates are findingthemselves facing the worstunemployment crisis since the GreatDepression—and women are faringworse than men. In the early weeksof the coronavirus crisis, women filednearly 59% of unemployment claims,despite being only half of the
labor force.7 Even in
the healthyeconomyof 2017,
23.5% of female graduates(versus 16% of malegraduates) indicated thatthey could not afford food,housing, utilities or medicalcare at some point overthe previous year.8 Saddledwith student debt andfacing a historicallydifficult labor market,young women will
likely be forced tochoose between basicnecessities and defaultingon their loans.
The global pandemic isalso likely to stretch recent | grads who rely on side jobsto repaystudent loans, save for a rainy dayor simply make ends meet. About15% of college graduates reportedtaking on extra employment, makingan average of $1,936.51 per year. Butthe economic shutdown has causedmost gig work—such as driving forride-sharing services, providing adhoc childcare or running errands—todry up.9 Young people are findingthemselves with mounting studentdebt and even fewer ways to pay it off.
Even those graduates lucky enoughto find a job are not guaranteed thebenefits that they need to weatherthe pandemic. Half of all graduateshave reported that their first job outof college does not offer benefits,including health insurance. Thismay force young people
to choose | between buying quality healthinsurance and repaying their studentloans—a decision we do not wantworkers making during a public healthcrisis.10
The difficulty of paying off studentloan debt—sure to be compoundedby current economic conditions—hasprofound downstream effects onwomen’s lives. More than a thi

FAQs

How much student loan debt do Americans carry, and how is it distributed by gender?

Americans carry $1.54 trillion in student loan debt. Women hold nearly two-thirds of outstanding loans, about $929 billion.

Which borrowers face the biggest debt burdens according to the report?

Black women finish undergraduate education with more debt, first-generation students face more debt by graduation, and borrowers from for-profit colleges owe far more than those attending public or private non-profit schools.

How does COVID-19 make student loan repayment harder?

Record unemployment, loss of supplementary income, inadequate benefits, and reduced gig work make it harder for recent graduates—especially women—to repay. Many also lack health benefits from their first jobs.

Oct 15, 2026

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